1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to water attractions and rides such as may be provided at water parks and amusement/theme parks, and, more particularly, to a water-based ride in which passengers in ride vehicles or on the ride are able to interact or play with water in a rotating ride.
2. Relevant Background
Water parks or recreation areas have become increasingly popular. For example, water parks are typically destination facilities including many areas for guests or visitors to swim and play in water. These destination water parks typically have standard pools, wave pools, water slides, and other areas where kids and adults can simply play in and with water such as in lazy rivers where water sprays guests in inflated tubes or on rafts. Water recreation areas or facilities are often provided at resorts and hotels and are typically provided on a smaller scale such as with a pool with a fountain, a waterfall, and water slides. It is also common for amusement parks and theme parks to include a water-based ride where the vehicle floats in or moves through water, and thrill is added by the anticipation and expectation that at least some of the passengers will get splashed or even soaked with water such as when vehicles drop rapidly into a pool of water or travel near spraying water.
While exciting and largely popular, most existing water-based rides provide little opportunity for the passengers to control the experience. For example, most water rides in amusement or theme parks use chance and luck of positioning and/or timing to determine which passengers get wet or are placed near a spray of water. Other rides may move all the vehicles through water spray or even immersing passengers, but the passengers have no control or ability to adjust the experience as they know each time they take the ride it will be about the same as last time. Some of the more popular water slides are the ones in which the participants can change their speed, direction, and other aspects of the rides by adjusting their weight, holding their body or tube in a different position, and taking other actions. The interaction portion increases the enjoyment, and ride designers continue to look for ways to provide water-based attractions that provide more guest interaction.
Another challenge for water attraction and ride designers is size and cost associated with installation, operation, and maintenance. A typical water ride at an amusement park may have a large footprint similar to a typical roller coaster or dark ride and cost millions of dollars to design, fabricate, and install. These large water rides may also require multiple operators to load and unload passengers and otherwise operate the ride. Maintenance may be quite expensive as wheels, bogies, and other mechanical and rotating parts are exposed to water. Similarly, the most popular wave pools and water slides are quite large and may be expensive to build and often require close supervision by operators to operate the attraction and/or to provide proper levels of guest safety. It has proven difficult to design a safe and easy to maintain water feature with a relatively small space or footprint requirement, and many hotels and resorts have decided not to provide water attractions beyond a conventional pool.
Hence, there remains a need for water attractions and/or rides that address the demand for interactive and unique water experiences which in some cases can be provided with a small footprint and may be relatively inexpensive to install, operate, and maintain.